Thread: Mexican braceros to US: Open Bracero Program's files

Mexican braceros to US: Open Bracero Program's files

By Lorena Figueroa / El Paso Times
POSTED: 02/20/2014 12:00:00 AM MST


Protesters on Wednesday in Juarez presented a letter asking President Barack Obama to open the Bracero Program's files and make public the money transfers that the U.S. government made to Mexico. ( LORENA FIGUEROA—EL PASO TIMES)


JUAREZ >> About 40 former Mexican laborers, or braceros, who worked in the U.S. in the 1940s, 50s and 60s, still want to know where their money went.

The men gathered in Juarez on Wednesday to ask the United States to open the Bracero Program's files and make public how much of the stipend held in the immigrant workers' paychecks were returned when they went back to México.

They hope the petition forces the Mexican government to reactivate the payments from a special fund set up by the U.S. in Mexico for former braceros. The payments stopped when Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto took office in December 2012.

	REPORTER
	Lorena Figueroa

The worker's request was made during a protest in front of the U.S. General Consulate in Juárez as the presidents of the United States, México and Canada met in the Mexican city of Toluca to mark the 20th anniversary of the North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA.

Simultaneous protests were held in other cities in México, including Ciudad Victoria, Matamoros, Mexicali, Aguascalientes, Guadalajara, Oaxaca and Toluca.

In Juárez the protesters gave U.S. consulate officials a letter directed to President Barack Obama asking him to open the Bracero Program's files and make public the money transfers that the U.S. government made to México.

The program, which started in 1942 and lasted until 1964, allowed millions of Mexicans to work in the United States on short-term labor contracts. Most of them worked in the railroad tracks and agricultural fields.

Fidel Chávez, director of Coordinadora Binacional de Ex Braceros in Chihuahua City, said there are as many of 5 million braceros, or guest workers, half a million from Chihuahua state, who might have participated in the program during those years.

During the program, the braceros' were deducted 10 percent from their wages and held in savings accounts. Wells Fargo received the deductions and then transferred them to Mexico's former Banco de Crédito Agrícola, a government bank. The workers were supposed to get their money back when they returned to México.

After refusing to acknowledge there was a fund and later claiming all records related to the accounts were lost during a major 1985 earthquake in Mexico City, the Mexican government established a special fund to pay 38,000 pesos, or $2,900, to each former bracero.

Chávez, who led the protest in Juárez, said only 181,000 former braceros or their surviving relatives that qualified for the special fund, including 17,000 from Chihuahua, had been paid the stipend between 2005 and 2012.

He said they want Obama to help them figure out how much money was put in the special fund.

"There are still millions of braceros hoping for their money," Chávez said.

Florentino Orozco, a 74-year-old former bracero from the tiny town of Ciénega de Ortiz in south Chihuahua, said he hasn't lost the hope.

Orozco said he was granted 11 permits from both the U.S. and Mexican governments to work in agricultural fields in the state of Nebraska and Texas during the Bracero Program. He earned about 50 cents and hour.

The Mexican government has denied Orozco a stipend because he does not have the required documents, like check stubs, to qualify for the special fund.

Carmelo Romero, 73, only has a photocopy of a permit issued by the Mexican government in the 1960's as proof that he was a 'bracero' in California. The original permit was sent to the Mexican government years ago to claim the stipend, but until now he hasn't receive back his document or his money.

"I am still waiting," he said.

Lorena Figueroa may be reached at 546-6129.

http://www.elpasotimes.com/news/ci_2...nt-their-money

RELATED

10/15/2008

http://www.alipac.us/f12/mexican-wor...ck-pay-128003/